Coast Guard To Observe 40th Anniversary Of Blackthorn Collision

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — On Tuesday at the site of the USCGC Blackthorn Memorial, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F. Wolf will commemorate the United States Coast Guard memorial service for the Coast Guard Cutter Blackthorn collision.

Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of the USCGC Blackthorn colliding with the tanker vessel Capricorn near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on Jan. 28, 1980.

Families of crew members of the Coast Guard Cutter Blackthorn are invited to attend.

The worst peacetime disaster in the Coast Guard's history, 23 of the 50 Blackthorn crew members died in the collision, several of which perished trying to rescue shipmates.

Most of those who died were in their 20s. The oldest, Chief Petty Officer Luther Stidhem, had just turned 40 two weeks before the collision. The youngest, Seaman Apprentice Rovolis, was 17 years old.

The memorial inscribed with the names of those crew members is located two miles north of the collision site at the Sunshine Skyway North Rest Area Park on the Pinellas County side of the bridge.

The Blackthorn collision prompted the Coast Guard to establish the Command and Operations School at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, to better prepare command-level officers and senior enlisted members for command duty afloat. Additionally, the Coast Guard developed new training requirements, updated its safety equipment and made changes to the navigational aids in and around Tampa.

The ceremony will take place at 11 a.m.

Wolf will also present awards to Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Air and Marine Operations members for their work during Hurricane Dorian at a ceremony Tuesday at Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, 15100 Rescue Way, Clearwater, at 1:30 p.m. Wolf will be joined by Adm. Karl Schultz, commandant of the Coast Guard, and Rear Adm. Brendan McPherson, military adviser to the secretary.

Hurricane Dorian struck the Commonwealth of the Bahamas as the strongest Category 5 hurricane on record. The Coast Guard and border patrol crews faced hurricane-force winds, periods of near zero visibility and flying debris to designated safe landing zones for mass medical evacuations, saving 258 people over two weeks.